Fear Remains Eternal
by The Potara Fusion
Summary: With the fall of the Dread Masters, the Dread War has finally come to a close. As the Republic and Empire return their focus to the fight to control the galaxy, a lone woman finds herself lost in the midst of a rebellion to liberate a world from Imperial hands. Without a past and without a name, she enters a galaxy torn from war in search of her identity; for better or worse.
1. Chapter 1: Shrouded in Darkness

_Hello everyone! This is story originally takes place after the events of the final battle of the Dread War on Oricon, and is going to serve as the background for my SWTOR character, Zuhara, from the Begeren Colony. I am always open to any criticisms you guys have, good or negative, nice or mean, whatever form of feedback you can provide. Hope to read through a multitude of comments, and hope you enjoy the story! :)_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 1: Shrouded in Darkness<strong>_

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><p>"Oh hey good, you're awake."<p>

A human woman lay still on top of a metal cot, lying on ragged sheets that draped over the framework on her left side, a cold stone wall to her right. The room she lay in was bare by it's very nature, stripped of nearly all furniture and mostly dark aside from a few fires burning as light sources at both ends of the room, one hanging on a wall a few feet from her bed. The voice did not belong to her, and her gaze searched the room for the more masculine tone laced with humor ringing out once more.

"Over here, not too quick though."

She responded in kind, having turned her eyes to another human, a man, sitting in a small wooden chair at the corner of the room. He looked to be in his mid thirties, having a buzz cut and a small beard hanging around from his upper lip down to his chin. He kept his hands clasped together, hunched forward in his seat with a gaze of intrigue and confidence.

"How are you feeling?"

The woman struggled to sit upright, tightly shutting her eyes as she lifted a hand to her head. She groaned slightly, attempting to ease the throbbing pressure towards the top of her head and speaking with a trembling voice.

"Where...where am I?"

"Telos. A small little agricultural world in the Outer Rim territories, even though it serves as a tourist attraction for the Imperials more than anything now ever since they returned a few decades ago."

The woman shook her head once, shifting a little on the ragged sheets of the cot. She stared blankly at the man, offering silence at his explanation as the only response. The man's expression suddenly changed, having raised an eyebrow in a skeptic stare back at the woman.

"Have you heard of the different planets? The galaxy we live in, the current war between the Empire and the Republic?"

She shook her head once in response, her face cringing tightly.

"I don't...who are you? How did I get here?"

The man sat upright in his seat, letting out a deep sigh.

"We found you, your ship crashed into the planet side a couple of nights ago and our recon teams began tracking you whenever the Imperials set a task force to hunt you down..."

He then grinned down at the woman.

"I've never seen someone effectively dismantle an entire squad of Imperial soldiers using only the Force. It was actually pretty amazing, watching you dash this way and that, effectively tearing apart those soldiers one by one."

The woman let out a small huff in perplexion, quickly grasping her head as the trobbing pain increased from her struggling.

"Then you just collapsed, probably from whatever is causing that headache you have now, and we brought you back here to our home."

The man then narrowed his eyes, studying her as his tone sharpened.

"Who are you?"

The woman turned to meet his eyes with her own, wide and trembling from left to right slightly.

"I...I don't know."

The man couldn't help but press a smile, chuckling lightly.

"You mean to tell me that a Force adept randomly crashed into our planetside, took out an entire Imperial squadron of soliders to become one of the most wanted women in Thani, and doesn't even know the galactic war raging across the galaxy or who she even is? You're turning out to be quite the miracle, you know."

He then let out a small sigh once more, nodding to her.

"But now that I know a little bit more about you, I suppose it is only fair that I tell you who I am."

The man then rose to his feet, moving towards the edge of the woman's cot as her eyes followed him across the room.

"My name is Jerex, a small little farmer that has had enough of the Imperial elitism plunging our planet into misery and depression. I was apart of the recon team that picked you up after your encounter with the Imperials, we saved your life from an enemy we both share now. We are your friends, and we are the resistance movement here on Telos that is fighting against a repressive Empire that will see our planet plundered for their own fruitless war against another political power called the Republic."

The woman blinked hard in response, watching the man move towards the door at the opposite end of the room.

"For now, take it slow and get some more sleep. You need to rest, and maybe it'll all come back to you in the morning."

He then turned to the small flame burning alight on the left of the wall, letting out a small huff of wind. The flame disappeared instantly from the force of the wind, and the woman stared hard as both the man and the door vanished into the darkness, the loud clang of the metal door shutting ringing out in the black void at the end of her cot.

She then turned her head up towards the small fire still burning brightly in the room above her, noticing he had left that light untouched. Her eyes began to close slightly, the command for her to sleep ringing in her mind and taking control of her sense.

A small breeze of wind escaped from the woman's mouth before her head collapsed back down onto the pillow, the light put out as both her mind and the room are taken by the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2: The Cannon on the Hilltop

_**Chapter 2: The Cannon on the Hilltop**_

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><p><em>The purple sky of the planet loomed over the landscape, nightfall having taken the planet in the midset of the chaos ensuring on the concrete slabs that battled to keep the wilderness from overtaking the grounds. The woman panted heavily, engaged in a full sprint as blaster fire whizzed around her body and panicked screams rang out from unknown and hidden entities. Her eyes glanced around, the occasional explosion and fires erupting on the stone giving the only visual to the war raging on around her.<em>

_She then turned her head to the north, watching on as a massive slab of concrete began to rapidly build up into the sky, beginning to take a life of its own. It's shape continued to morph out and overtake the stars in the sky, soon building into the shape of a massive cannon, pointing to an unknown source._

_The woman remained frozen in her stance, the sounds and visuals of the war being completely overshadowed from the bright blue hue growing in intensity at the mouth of the massive cannon, the ground rumbling underneath her feet from its roar. But as the massive flare of light intensified to its peak, a fireball of red suddenly burst through the metal framework in the middle of the cannon, the blue light soon fading as even more red fireballs began to erupt in all facets._

_The framework of the cannon began to collapse, crashing down into itself with each deafening explosion claiming the weapon's foundation below. The woman watched on, a sinister voice ringing out in her head._

_"Your purpose has been served."_

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><p>The woman paused for a moment, sitting in silence. Her entire vision shown only darkness, yet her steady breathing broke the silence that accompanied the void of sight.<p>

Shifting slightly, the woman sat upright in the cot, realizing she was now awake. She glanced around for a moment, having decided to move her head in spite of her lack of vision, before her eyes immediately darted to the front of the room where light poured into her quarters from the hallway opening.

"Good morning!"

The woman stared at Jerex, watching him turn to the candle resting at the doorframe and lighting the wick, filling the front end of the room with light.

"How does your head feel by the way?"

She paused for a moment, her stare blank.

"Better..."

"Well good."

Jerex stood at the doorway instead of moving even farther into the room, however, and waved towards the door.

"C'mon, let me show you around."

The woman quietly shifted off the side of the cot, wrapping herself in the ragged brown sheets she had used for a cover in the night. She then walked on after him, bare feet lightly tapping onto the ground after the plod of his combat boots entering into the hallway.

Her eyes traveled around at the grim appearance of the stone walls around her, the small space between the surrounding walls forcing Jerex to duck his head slightly.

"You know, these tunnels were first created centuries ago as a means to hide from the very thing we find ourselves at war against now."

The woman turned her eyes to him, clutching her blanket in both hands.

"Who?"

Jerex glanced back down at her over his left shoulder, his disbelief clear in his expression.

"The Sith? You know, the evil version of what the Jedi are?"

The woman offered only silence in response, prompting Jerex to chuckle in amusement as he turned his gaze to the front while they continued to walk through the tunnel.

"I didn't think your case of memory loss was so severe. But to give you an idea, the Sith are a group of religious individuals who have the ability to perform super powered feats through something called the Force."

He glanced down slightly, frowning.

"They're ruthless individuals who believe in only increasing their power, stepping on anyone they can to lift themselves higher and higher. Centuries ago, these tunnels were created to survive and defend against the onslaught brought onto us by the will of only one Sith. Now, there's an entire Empire of them at our doorstep, and we lose more and more numbers each day."

The woman's questioning tone forced his attention once more.

"An Empire of them?"

Jerex nodded his head once.

"The galaxy is currently at war, where an entire star system of planets is at the mercy of two factions fighting for control. We had originally lived under the banner of the Republic, our people having been freed and restored thanks to the work of the Jedi. But after the Sith returned with the Empire, our world was one of the first to fall since we're located very closely to the Imperial capital homeworld."

The woman kept her attention trained on the man, her questioning tone more prevalent.

"What are the Jedi?"

The man huffed lightly, shrugging his shoulders lightly in response.

"I don't really know too much about them, to be honest with you. All I can say that'll help you understand is that they are the Republic's version of the Sith. Weilding the Force, but have different philosophical opinions on it. My father spoke highly of them, telling me how they were revered as peacekeepers and true heroes that inspire."

He glanced back over his shoulder for a moment, before turning his head back to the front with scoff.

"You know, children's stories and all that. He even told me about how Telos' underwent a restoration effort after that one Sith's destructive rampage, and the Jedi prevented a second one from completely consuming the planet."

The woman remained silent in response, her eyes landing on the door frame Jerex suddenly came to a halt in front of. He had turned around to face her, offering a warm smile.

"But enough of that. This is our medical center for the base, where we bring our wounded. It doesn't see much action, mostly because if one of our soldiers is actually wounded out in the field, it's better in most cases that they die than give our location away in a struggle to get back to our base."

Jerex nodded towards a lone man, sitting at a holoterminal in the southwest corner of the room.

"Our doctor, Kandar, can possibly help you with your case of memory loss."

She glanced into the room after his explanation, making her way past him inside silently. Jerex's eyes remained locked onto her as she advanced further in the room towards Kandar, turning on his heel and rapidly walking further down the hallway once he was satisfied that she had shifted her focus away from him.

The woman came to a halt, clutching the ragged cloth covering her body in both hands even more tightly and speaking with a soft tone.

"Excuse me...Kandar?"

Kandar perked up from his terminal, whirling around in his seat at the sound of her voice. The pale skin on the top of his head created a small glare from the light above, diverting the woman's attention for a moment. He looked over her once before breaking out into a wide smile, opening his arms out slightly.

"Ah good! You're up and moving about!"

He then dropped his arms down into his lap, maintaining his warm and happy appearance.

"I am, indeed, Kandar and it's good to finally meet you. Jerex told me you have a little bit of a memory problem, is that correct?"

The woman nodded her head once.

"Yes, that's right."

Kandar rubbed his chin, humming to himself.

"Is there anything you can recall about your past? A name, family, what you ate for dinner the night before you crashed her on planet? Anything?"

"No."

Kandar nodded his head once, slowly rising up to his feet with a heavy sigh.

"Alright, let's go ahead and run a few tests to see if we can jog your memory a bit."

He then reached out, taking the cloth the woman clutched onto in his hands.

"Let's go ahead and get rid of this old, dirty sheet..."

Kandar pulled the cloth off her body smoothly, bundling up the brown sheet in his hands and tossing it close to his chair. His eyes widened once they landed back on her body, the woman stared back blankly at him.

"Oh my...Jerex didn't...get you any clothe-Let me go find you some clothes."

He quickly hopped into a fast paced walk, darting towards the back of the room towards a large storage closet on the opposite wall of the room, ducking his head inside and digging into the materials in search of a patient robe. The woman followed him with her eyes, keeping her blank stare and sitting down on top of a padded cot hanging off the wall behind her, completely nude without the blanket.

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><p>"Enjoying the view?"<p>

A small, Chiss man huffed lightly in shock at the sound of Jerex's voice, turning his attention away from the monitor the covered the entire medical bay and whirling around in his seat to face towards the man stepping into the room, watching him move up to the command table in the center of the room full of terminals lining the walls. He stood still at the opposite end, facing towards three men gathered across from him. The first, standing in the middle of the trio, was a Mirialan with black hair buzzed and yellow eyes that narrowed heavily at Jerex.

"At least he's keeping an eye on her, Jerex. You feel comfortable leaving that Sith with Kandar alone like that?"

Jerex nodded his head once.

"I do. She isn't going to make her ploy yet, you know it as well as I do."

The man to the right of the Mirialan, another Chiss male with light blue skin, frowned heavily.

"I still don't understand why you are bent on keeping this Sith around. What do you hope to benefit from someone that is trying to find a way into our ranks and looking for a weakness of ours to exploit?"

The dark skinned human to the left of the Mirialan nodded in agreement.

"We're taking a huge chance following your lead on this one Jerex, and right now, I also don't see a point in entertaining this ruse that the Sith is currently playing on us. There is no benefit we gain from following along with this Sith's ploy that we could've gained over killing her in her sleep."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Unless you actually believe this fairy tale that is being forced onto us."

Jerex nodded his head.

"I understand your concern, and believe me, I know she's merely trying to dupe us. But look-"

He pointed towards the monitor across the room, making his way up to the screen and brushing past the operative who had been studying the monitor.

"Come over here and look at her eyes."

The three men remained still, the Mirialan's tone impatient.

"Just tell us what you're on about Jerex."

Jerex glanced back to the three from the monitor, his expression stern.

"She's got that look in her eyes, not of fear and confusion. But guilt...her guilt is the key."

The three men offered no response, watching Jerex with narrowed eyes as he continued.

"Just give me a little more time with her. She thinks she's playing us, but believe me when I tell you that I can change her. She's clearly distraught over what she may have done, and I can see that she has regrets over coming here to destroy us from the inside."

Jerex smiled.

"And then, if all goes well, we'll have the power of a Sith on our side. Nothing is greater than to turn an enemy you turn to your cause."

"And what if you fail, hmm? What happens then?"

Jerex's smiled dropped, shrugging his shoulders lightly.

"Then we kill her in her sleep, just as you suggested."


	3. Chapter 3: Cloak and Dagger

_**Chapter 3: Cloak and Dagger of the Rebellion**_

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><p>Doctor Kandar kept his gaze down on the pad resting neatly in his lap, his pen gently rasping over the paper on the clipboard. He glanced back up once he had finished his paragraph, eyeing the woman sitting on the medical cot covering herself tightly with her arms over her breasts.<p>

"Why are you so concerned with covering your body now? You didn't seem to mind before."

The woman kept a blank expression, shrugging her shoulders lightly.

"I don't know. You told me it wasn't proper to show certain body parts."

The doctor nodded his head once, leaning forward in his seat with a frown.

"Yes, but that's the thing: you still don't know it on your own. Often with cases of amnesia, certain areas of memory and habits are lost within the mind from some sort of physical or mental trauma. Yet in your case, you're displaying very weird symptoms of what exactly you remember and what is lost."

His eyes landed on her shoulders.

"You don't remember societal norms or conditions, but your subconscious habits where in example, you shrug your shoulders whenever you are uncertain of something, was clearly intact a moment ago. Should you have been a 'normal' case of amnesia, you should've forgotten both areas as they share the same type of mental cognition within the subconscious and are usually connected to each other."

The woman frowned back in response.

"What does that mean?"

The doctor sighed heavily.

"It means, your memory is a complex problem because you've repressed certain areas of your subconscious more than others. Or even, you may not have even had them at all. Since we are still in the process of determining your past from all this, it's hard to say which one is the truth in this case."

Kandar clasped his hands together, resting his arms on the clipboard in his lap.

"Let's try the word association game again. And this time, don't just focus on my word, focus more on yourself and speak the first one that comes to you."

He then sat back slightly.

"Peace."

"Chaos.

"Water."

"Fire."

"Light."

"Darkness."

The doctor narrowed his eyes.

"Darkness."

"Light."

At the sound of her last response, Doctor Kandar let out another heavy sigh, burying his head in his hands in exasperation.

"We've been over this, dear. You're just focusing on my word, you need to let your mind create an image."

The woman kept her frown.

"You told me to speak the first word that comes to my mind, and that's what I did. I don't know what else you want me to do, I'm sorry."

The doctor nodded his head once.

"I understand..."

He then pushed himself off the clipboard.

"Your responses are a small reflection of your personality, as you speak in opposites. Despite your current memory being lost, you've retained some of your overall philosophical beliefs, where you measure things in opposite forces."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Does that sound about right to you?"

The woman blankly stared back in response.

"I..I suppose. I mean, I don't really know."

The doctor dipped his head, nodding it once.

"I had hoped to look more into your history and gain a little more insight in who you were specifically from drawing out your memory with these tests, but it appears your mind needs more time to recover before we can see more."

Kandar then smiled back up at the woman, rising up to his feet.

"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of all this and you'll remember everything in due time."

The woman stared back up at Kandar, keeping her blank and empty expression as she absent mindly stared back at him. The doctor then glanced back towards the door leading into the hallway, Jerrex having returned and walking up towards the two a few feet away.

"Hey Doc, you figure out anything about our mystery girl here?"

Doctor Kandar smiled at Jerrex's upbeat tone, nodding.

"Bits and pieces, but not much. She needs more time to rest before we'll be able to learn more about her."

Jerrex nodded in recognition to the doctor before turning his gaze back down to the woman sitting on the cot, smirking slightly.

"You know, I saw the footage on the security camera in our command center of the medbay. I won't complain, and I know the men won't either, but it's not very proper to walk around naked like that in public you know."

The woman remained still, her blank eyes meeting Jerrex's.

"Ok."

Jerrex met her eyes with nearly matching confusion, caught off guard by her blunt and empty comment.

_Was sure that flirt would spark some kind of response out of her. Interesting..._

He turned his head back towards the doctor at the sound of his amused tone.

"That's one of her grey areas Jerrex. She doesn't even remember societal norms, the galaxy map, about galactic living at all. No history, politics, or anything."

Jerrex grinned uneasily back at Kandar.

"Well still, we're all living beings, and we all have those...umm...urges..."

His eyes then turned back to the woman, his grin fading away.

"I mean, I'm sure you should be able to recognize when a man shows a small sign of interest in you, right?"

The woman blinked once, staying silent. Jerrex paused, frowning slightly.

"Do you even have those urges at all?"

The woman shook her head, her tone indicating her blunt, yet emotionless, ignorance.

"No."

Jerrex's frown deepened in response.

_Huh, there goes that plan. Damn, this Sith is better than I thought. Nothing is going to pull her out of this ruse she's playing..._

He then shook his head from side to side quickly, his tone lightening.

"Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. I just got done talking to command, and they've come up with a brilliant plan for what to do with you!"

"What?"

Jerrex broke out into a big grin, grabbing onto the woman's shoulders.

"You're gonna be a Jedi! We're gonna get you a shuttle here in the next few hours and send you to Tython, so you can learn how to use the Force to fight against the Sith."

The woman stared blankly in response, turning her gaze to Doctor Kandar who frowned at the news.

"Hey wait a minute, we're sending her to Tython? But she would be able to help us out here tremendously, think of what she did to those soldiers without any training."

Jerrex nodded.

"And that's exactly why we're gonna send her to Tython. She'd be capable of learning so much more there than here, and we have to use her unique potential for our efforts."

He then locked his eyes with hers once more, keeping his warm smile.

"The only condition is that when you have completed your training, you have to come back here and help us liberate the planet from the Empire. Deal?"

The woman nodded her head once, returning his smile with a genuine one of her own.

"Yeah, ok. I'd be happy to do that."

Doctor Kandar couldn't help a smile of his own, crossing his arms across his chest.

"You won't forget about us here, will you? With the war going on, many people are too busy fighting over resource and core worlds in the Republic to think about poor little Telos way out in the Outer Rim."

The woman shrugged her shoulders at the doctor.

"How can I forget about you? You two are the only people I know."

Doctor Kandar paused, soon breaking out into a small chuckle before glancing back to Jerrex.

"Alright Jerrex, she has me convinced. I'm sure this plan will work out great for all of us, let's just hope she doesn't take too long figuring out how to read a book and sit in front of a temple statue all day."

Jerrex nodded, smiling back in response.

"We can only hope so."

He then turned his head towards back to the woman, gesturing towards the main corridor once more.

"C'mon, the ship should be ready to take you any minute!"

The woman nodded, quickly hopping off the cot and following after Jerrex as the two entered back into the main hallway. Jerrex lead the woman down the corridor, his back to her and the two remained silent on the approach to the hangar across the base. He continued to glance to his side, hesitating before glancing back over his shoulder.

"You'll love the ship we set up for you to use, it's got everything already preprogrammed into the navicomputer so all you need to do is wait for the arrival. It'll take a few hours to reach the planet after coming out of hyperspace, so we packed a couple of rations that we could spare for you to eat."

Jerrex lifted his head up, having emerged from the smaller tunnel into the wide open room that held a ceiling four hundred feet up into the air, spanning approximately double in length. Apart from the large freighter class spaceship neatly sitting in the middle of the large hangar, the bay was devoid of even crates and other equipment let alone a crew working on preparing the ship.

He turned fully around to face back towards the woman, his eyes meeting hers once again.

"Before you head out, I just want to ask: is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

The woman shook her head.

"No, nothing comes to mind."

Jerrex instinctively frowned in response.

"Nothing? Nothing you want to get off your chest? Maybe something you'd like to tell me?"

The woman kept her blank stare.

"No...I don't really have anything to say."

Jerrex nodded his head once, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Alright, then I suppose you should be off then. The navicomputer has already been programmed with the coordinates, but if you have trouble finding your way, just remember to follow the Hydian path. If the autotracking fails, you'll still be able to pull up the digital map and it should take you to the Core Worlds. When you're there, just look for Tython in the heart of the center. It won't be hard to spot..."

His frown returned, his tone soft.

"Just...whatever you do...don't go off course. Ok?"

The woman nodded her head.

"Ok, I'll see you when I get back then."

Jerrex smiled back in response, one eye glancing back to the ramp leading up to the ship.

"Sounds like a plan to me. If you have any trouble, there's a holocommunicator in the bridge of the ship. The base's frequency is also already preset into it, just hit the red button if you need to get in touch with me."

The woman nodded, moving past him towards the ship. Jerrex remained silent, watching her walk across the long empty hangar alone for a few moments, only turning around on his heel once he saw her take the first step onto the ship ramp.

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><p>He soon found himself back in the small corridor, rushing quickly back to the command room at the sound of the Mirialan commander's humored tone.<p>

"Yeah, brilliant idea. Let's give the amnesia patient a freighter to try and travel across the galaxy. What could go wrong?"

Jerrex came to a slow halt entering the command center of the base once more, huffing lightly.

"If she's not who she says she is, then it won't be a problem. But to be honest with you Rodric, I'm having my doubts she's really a Sith spy..."

The commander called Rodric watched Jerrex incredulously as the man darted past the trio in the center of the room, watching him take a seat at a nearby terminal.

"Surely you can't be having second thoughts now. We agreed that her reactions in the medbay to Kandar's tests proves she's a spy, you saw her take to those dark side terms quicker than the others."

Jerrex narrowed his eyes, his fingers dancing across the keyboard in front of the terminal and his attention remaining locked on the screen.

"That doesn't even mean anything here, and if it did, you saw what her final response was. And I haven't decided to quit on the plan..."

He then whirled back around, gesturing towards the screen.

"Look, the bombs are still active and primed. I just ran a diagnostics check to see if we can still access their remote triggers from this command station and disarmed the one in the navicomputer."

The dark skinned human spoke next, his tone fiery.

"Why? We all know what she's plotting, we cleared the hangar and prepped it for the explosion just for the very purpose of the detonation happening here."

Jerrex kept his seat, turning his eyes to the human.

"Because I'd rather not kill off the one miracle that may actually have landed here as our salvation. You may not have seen it, but I can see her confusion and ignorance in her eyes. She doesn't have a damn clue what's going on, and if she did, then she's perfected the art of deception so well, there's no reason the Empire would waste sending her just to destroy a bunch of unhappy farmers trying to liberate an agricultural, tourist attraction."

Before the commanders could openly shout at Jerrex, the man quickly nodded back to the terminal.

"If I'm wrong though, I am keeping the remote detonators online. I'll watch her progress on the navicomputer, and if she makes one change in course, even one pit stop to take a piss on Coruscant, I promise you I'll blow that ship up the second I see it happen."

He raised an eyebrow at the three, who immediately fell silent.

"Fair?"

The commanders paused for a moment, before Rodric spoke in a threatening tone.

"You'd better blow up that ship if you see it happen, Jerrex. We've already spent a lot of resources and time into developing this little trap of yours, I'd hate to see it go to waste because of a soldier that became seduced by a Sith's deceptive betrayal."

Jerrex immediately turned back to the terminal, his eyes still narrow and his voice oozing venom.

"I'll do my best, sir. Now if you're done threatening me over matters that you can't even control, prepare for takeoff."


	4. Chapter 4: A Broken Shield

_**Chapter 4: A Broken Shield**_

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><p><em>Molten magma erupted across the landscape, small bubbles of air pulsing in the small bonds all around the cracked, dry surface of the unending landscape before the woman. Her head was now dipped, staring at the floor as she struggled to sharpen her vision.<em>

_"What...where..."_

_Her eyes turned upwards, a dark masculine voice nearly booming over her head and sending chills up her spine. Her attention remained locked on the humanoid shadows standing in a row before her, totaling in six and standing only but a few feet away from her at all angles. Her strength failed her, unable to lift her hands in her lap to rise to her feet while the dark voice became audible and coherent._

_"Your purpose...not yet...fulfilled..."_

_The woman's mouth opened, huffing deeply in a groggy response._

_"What do you mean?"_

_The shadows before her made no change in stance as the dark voice erupted once more, the echo distorting her perception on which shadow spoke to her._

_"The shield is broken, but the sword is drawn."_

_The woman shook her head, her eyelids squeezing tightly together._

_"I don't understand. What are you talking about?"_

_The voice spoke once more, its tone ominous yet calm._

_"Your purpose...not yet...fulfilled..."_

_The woman huffed again, yet her voice begin to rise._

_"Stop it!"_

_"The shield is broken..."_

_"Shut up!"_

_"But the sword is-"_

* * *

><p>"Hey!"<p>

The woman's head shot up, her eyes wide as she immediately sprung a little off her seat. She glanced back down to her legs, her memory piecing together the chair she had begun to nap in being same object she now found herself sitting on. Her head darted over to the intercom only two inches from her head, a decision made where she could easily follow Jerrex's command if he had one for her.

"Hey, you still there?"

The woman paused for a moment, finishing her last momentary thoughts before positioning her head close to the intercom.

"Yeah, I'm still here."

Jerrex's voice on the other end came out blunt, yet still kept an air of sincerity and happiness in his speech.

"Alright, glad to hear. You should be approaching Tython now, shuttle access is going to be pretty strict at the orbital check in station."

The warmness in his voice then chilled a bit.

"Which, I should have told you this sooner, but they won't be too happy when they find the high grade explosive charges rigged to blow in your cargo holds."

The woman blinked her eyes once.

"Well...what do I do when they search my ship?"

The other end of the intercom remained silent for a few seconds, Jerrex's voice revealing how the question had caught him offguard.

"Wait...hang on a second..."

The woman paused, her eyes locked on the intercom and listening to the voice continue after an exasperated sigh.

"Look, I don't really know what's going on here or if you're playing some sort of game with me. But I just told you about explosives in the ship that we placed, don't you realize what that means?"

The woman's tone matched her blank expression.

"You were trying to kill me?"

A pause left the ship silent for a few moments, Jerrex's tone dropped once his voice resonated in the room once more.

"Yeah...don't you feel upset about that?"

The woman blinked once.

"No, not really."

The line fell silent once more, an uneasy pause ensuing from the flat response. Another sigh came from Jerrex, nearing a whisper in his speech.

"Just forget it. At this point, I know a Sith would have shown at least some type of emotional outburst at that little betrayal, but you're like a stone wall. Either you're amazingly good at deception, or you really are who you say you are."

The woman's tone remained unchanged, yet the edge of her lips curled down down slightly.

"Well, I suppose anything's possible."

Jerrex's laugh erupted from the com.

"Good thing I sent you to the Jedi planet then. You either find yourself on a hostile world full of super powered beings, or you take your first step in helping our rebellion here on Tython. So, if you really are a Sith and have been deceiving me, I hope your death is as painful as the ones you were responsible for in this war..."

The woman kept her blank expression, despite the venomous words, listening as the tone changed drastically in a matter of seconds.

"And if you really are that beautiful woman who is looking to do the right thing for a new home she may have found, I wish you luck in your trials."

The woman stared back at the com, the line falling completely silent for the remainder of journey as the ship soon slowed into the atmosphere of Tython and descending down towards the massive orbital space station above the planet's surface.

* * *

><p>The clear, blue skies gave way to the bright shining sun's ray of mid day light, creating a hopeful atmosphere on Tython that hadn't been seen in months. As if the fog and smoke of the bombs rose to the sky and polluted the air in bleak hopelessness, the lingering clouds hung over Tython as the Republic went to work rebuilding the nearly decimated temple. Many halls and wings still remained closed off in the construction, yet the sun and clear skies returned for the first time now that the main Temple was once again livable.<p>

Standing in the open grounds, a lone Jedi crossed his arms behind his back, staring up into the sky with a smile across his face. He was white human male, appearing no more than forty in age, clad in simple white robes with his hood down on his back, his dark brown hair spiking at the front of his head. He made no shift in his stance, maintaining his stance at the approach of a young blue Twi'lek trooper clad in white armor.

"Magnificent, isn't it? I haven't seen the sun in such a long time, and it returns to reward our recovery from the forces of darkness."

The trooper offered a smile in return, his eyes turning to the sky for a brief moment.

"It is beautiful, Master Ferran..."

His expression immediately dropped, frowning.

"But we have a situation that Lieutenant Damas says he can't take care of without you."

Master Ferran turned his attention down from the sky, raising an eyebrow at the trooper once his attention had returned back to the world he stood on.

"What is it?"

"We just received a ship from Telos, sir. A woman, wearing little more than rags, arrived in a freighter class starship about five hours ago, claiming to seek the teachings of the Jedi."

The Jedi Master stared back with slightly narrowed eyes.

"I'm assuming that isn't the problem, sergeant."

The Twi'lek bowed his head.

"No, the problem is that her ship's cargo hold was loaded with enough baradium and thermite explosives to wipe out two hangar bays on our orbital docking station. We detained her immediately."

Master Ferran smiled.

"Good, you've taken care of the problem then."

The Twi'lek shook his head once in response.

"No sir, not finished yet. We questioned her about the explosives, and she claimed she only just heard of them moments before arriving. Her story says she was sent by a resistance force on Telos, but they distrusted her in believing her story there too. Apparently, she was being hunted by Imperial forces on the planet and suffers from amnesia, which the resistance force believed she was just a Sith attempting to dismantle their organization from within."

The Jedi Master kept his half smile, lifting his head up slightly.

"You're very well informed on this detainee, sergeant."

"I was present for the questioning, sir. I'm just telling you what I think is happening right now."

The Jedi nodded his head once more, his eyebrow still cocked.

"Do you believe her story, then?"

The trooper dipped his head, sighing lightly.

"I don't really know sir, and neither does the Lieutenant. He's transporting her down to the surface, and he told me to warn you of his motives."

The Master chuckled in response, nodding his head.

"Yes, that sounds like Damas. He probably feels as if there is truth to her story, if he hasn't already accepted it by now. No doubt, he's on a mission to find me a new Padawan?"

The trooper offered another smile to answer the Jedi's question.

"You know him as well as I do, sir. Made a bet for 20 credits that you'd take her from interest in the amnesia part of her situation."

Master Ferran stifled another chuckle, shaking his head slightly.

"I've spent enough time fighting in this war and rebuilding this Temple to rid my spirit of enough energy to train another Padawan, old friend. But I suppose I can at least hear another one of his sales pitches out again, for old times sake."

The trooper's smile expanded out, barring his white teeth in a bow to the Jedi Master.

"Very good, sir. I'll be back momentarily with Damas."

Master Ferran closed his eyes in his nod back to the trooper, opening them once he had finished to see the Twi'lek having already turned heel in a light job back towards the Temple enterance, soon disappearing inside. The Jedi soon shifted his gaze back towards the sky, his smile stronger than ever.


	5. Chapter 5: A New Leash

_**Chapter 5: A New Leash**_

* * *

><p>The woman followed closely behind the armored soldier while her eyes traversed the bright atmosphere around her. She stared off into the trees, her attention fully devoted to the wildlife merely feet away from the temple courtyard the two traversed, before letting out a small yelp as she bumped into the soldier's cold armor. She stumbled back a step, regaining her balance while the dark skinned human kept his back to her, smiling over his shoulder.<p>

"Watch your step there, little lady."

He then nodded over to his left, stepping to the side.

"Master Ferran here is the Jedi I was telling you about; I'm sure he's eager to make your acquaintance."

The woman turned her eyes to the now visible area the soldier had been blocking, her attention landing on the robed man standing with his arms crossed behind his back. His eyes met hers, offering a warm smile in return.

"At last, you managed to find your way here."

The woman blinked hard in response, standing still.

"Excuse me?"

The Jedi Master kept his same composure, his attention turning to the soldier who burst out into a small chuckle in response.

"Ah ha, I knew it! There was something special about her, isn't there?"

Master Ferran nodded his head once, his smiling widening at the soldier's amusement.

"Indeed there is, Lieutenant. When you sent Rao ahead to tell me of your little game, he didn't inform me that this was the very same woman we rescued from Oricon."

The soldier smirked back at Master Ferran, chuckling as the woman glanced between them in lost ignorance.

"This is news to me Ferran, you didn't even tell me you were on Oricon, let alone saving damsels in distress from evil Sith Lords. But I guess you've always had a taste for the heroic side of war, haven't you?"

Master Ferran stifled a chuckle in response, uncrossing his hands behind his back.

"You're never going to let me live that conversation down, are you?"

The soldier grinned.

"Not a chance. Someone's got to keep you humble around here."

Master Ferran kept his wide smile, dipping his head lightly.

"Appreciated, old friend."

The woman glanced between the two for a moment, her voice flat.

"I'm sorry, who are you again?"

The soldier chuckled once more, raising an eyebrow back at the Jedi.

"Oh what's this Ferran? She doesn't even remember your name? I thought you could make a lasting impression on any woman, especially the ones you save."

Master Ferran kept his smile, lifting his head up slightly.

"You won't let me live that one down either, will you?"

The soldier burst out into a fit of laughter, placing his hands on his hips.

"Oh no, never! Not after seeing all this heavy and lustful desire for you from our new friend here, Master Jedi!"

The Jedi remained silent, keeping a genuine smile as he chuckled along with the soldier, nodding his head once more in response.

"It's good to see you've always got my back Damas."

The soldier nodded curtly in response, winking at the Jedi Master with his left eye.

"You know it buddy, I'm always looking out for ya. I'll leave you two alone now, don't want to intrude on your expert skills of seduction."

The lieutenant turned on his heel, attempting to contain his fit of laughter as he began to head back towards the temple entrance and disappearing inside. Master Ferran shook his head once with a smile, turning his eyes back up to the woman.

"I'm sorry about all that, Damas and I are good friends. He doesn't mean any disrespect towards you."

The woman kept her blank stare, staring back at the Jedi.

"That's ok, but what were you two talking about?"

The Jedi dipped his head slightly at the question.

"Damas and I grew up together on Coruscant. It's a long story, but he likes to remind me of the time before I became a Jedi."

Master Ferran chuckled again.

"He means well. It's his way of showing respect for how far we've both come in life."

The woman kept her same blank stare, remaining still.

"Alright, so how do you know me?"

Master Ferran's smile retreated a bit, turning into a near smirk.

"Ah, you still don't remember what happened on that moon, do you?"

The woman shook her head.

"No, all I can remember is crashing onto a planet called Telos. There was a group of resistance fighters who helped me come here, to become a Jedi and aid their cause once I was ready."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Can you teach me?"

Master Ferran remained still in response for a moment, his eyes scanning her. His lips became flat, crossing his arms behind his back once more.

"Perhaps. But first, I must ask: are you Force sensitive?"

The woman nodded her head.

"Yes."

"Show me."

The woman blinked once more.

"What?"

Master Ferran brought his left hand out, gesturing to her with a curt nod before crossing it with his right behind his back.

"Show me how you learned you were Force sensitive."

The woman paused, glancing over to the treeline just outside of the courtyard. She quickly extended out her left arm towards the ground past the staircase leading onto a dirt pathway, three rocks responding to her call and rising into the air. The woman let her arm drop back down to her side as the rocks mimicked the motion, lightly padding back onto the dirt while her gaze turned back to Master Ferran.

The Jedi Master smiled back in response, his eyes locking with hers.

"Interesting. Your movements were unlike a beginner's, very precise and coordinated. While your display of quantity wasn't vast, you showed a level of skill and restraint that a fresh adept would not have. Sith or Jedi."

He narrowed his eyes slightly, yet kept a warm smile.

"You really don't remember what happened on Oricon at all, do you?"

The woman remained still.

"Oricon?"

The Jedi Master nodded, yet turned on his heel.

"Yes, we've met before on a moon called Oricon. Come with me, I'll explain as we walk."

The woman followed after the Jedi Master, walking along to his left side as they both set out on the dirt path towards the large treeline, soon disappearing past the wood and into the forest.

* * *

><p><em>"I've seen one kill ten Jedi without breaking a sweat..."<em>

The city skyline of Coruscant's busy metropolitan atmosphere continued on during the beginning hours of the night, the walls two inches from a lone man sitting at his desk muffling most of the sounds outside. The human male, light skinned and bald appearing to be in his forties, sat at his terminal with his chin resting on his hands, staring at the white screen in front of him. He had closed out his files, leaving it blank as another man soon moved up behind his chair.

"You look a little tired Jendril."

The bald man glanced over his shoulder, letting out an exasperating sigh.

"Don't worry about me Balkar, I'm fine."

The other man offered a small smirk in response, crossing his arms across his chest.

"C'mon Jen, we've been working together for a few years now. Haven't we made it to addressing each other on a first name basis already?"

The bald man kept his frown, his eyes turning back to his screen.

"Alright Jonas, but please. I have some more work to do."

The other man leaned back, resting against the wall to the bald man's left with a grin.

"Lighten up Jen, we got 'em. The Dread Masters are gone; the Dread War is over. It's time to tie off the evidence and relax a little bit before the brass puts us back to work on the Empire."

The bald man shook his head, guiding his own cursor to edge of his screen. A lone picture shot back up on the monitor, depicting an open tiled courtyard in Section X of the Belsavis prison. Blue and green rods accompanied four black specs in the middle of the yard, all converging in light blurs against another wielding a rod of purple.

The bald man spun lightly in his seat, turning to face the man leaning against the wall.

"The Dread Guard are still out there, you know it better than most."

The other man offered a frown in response.

"The Dread Guard were merely puppets of the Dread Masters. Without the Dread Masters, they pose no threat."

"Then why haven't we reclaimed Oricon yet?"

The man sighed.

"Complete victory takes time Jen, c'mon. Besides, it's not like we aren't fighting against the Empire there either. They want those Phobis devices for themselves, those remnants are just using our conflict with the Empire to their advantage."

The bald man nodded frantically, slapping his hand on the table.

"That's my point! How can these remnants be smart enough to hold out against two dominating factions on their planet if they were just puppets of Sith who are now dead? How can these soldiers be fighting us effectively enough to keep us away from that palace if no one is giving them orders?"

The other man smirked.

"I bet you 20 credits Oricon will be under our control by the end of the month, ten that the Empire will claim it."

The bald man grunted in frustration.

"This isn't a game Balkar, this is serious. The Dread Guard were more than just vessels of the Masters; they exercised free will while the Host were just mindless puppets. They were captains, enhanced by the Masters like Kephess was yet maintained a level of awareness and competence of a leader, and were completely eradicated by the time we uncovered the base on Oricon. All of them..."

His pointer finger quickly landed back on his monitor, barely a millimeter away from the black spec wielding the purple glow rod.

"Except for this one."

The other man rolled his eyes.

"We did catch that one, Jen. The strike team that destroyed the Aurora Cannon got him, he died after we crippled that weapon."

The bald man shook his head.

"I swear to you, there were two."

The other man pushed himself off the wall, sighing lightly.

"Well, then I'll let you waste more time chasing this 'second Dread Guard Commander' conspiracy theory of yours if you want. But when the brass says for us to move on, I'll pull the plug on your little manhunt no matter what, ok?"

The bald man turned back to face his monitor, his hands dashing across his keyboard in a flurry of strokes as he resumed his operation, offering silence to the other operative with his back to him. The other man paused for a moment, glancing down to the floor before smiling back at the bald man.

"Do let me know though, if you find something."

The man turned on his heel, soon exiting out the adjacent door way to leave the other alone in an empty, dark office space, illuminated only by the bright screen of his monitor.


	6. Chapter 6: The Waters of Life

_**Chapter 6: The Waters of Life**_

* * *

><p>"Both of the factions sent forces to stop the Dread Masters' plans, dealing a crippling blow to their forces and preventing the launch of hundreds of ships that day."<p>

The two walked alongside one another, Master Ferran keeping his arms locked behind his back while the woman listened intently to his recollection of the events on Oricon. The sky had darkened rapidly, setting into a late afternoon atmosphere as the sun on Tython began to retreat from the sky.

"And it was when we fought the same commanders of the Dread Host, the Dread Masters' armies, and strengthened each other in the face of a threat great enough to crush both of our factions, did we discover our best hope was to work together."

The Jedi Master smiled.

"It was an interesting scene that day, one that I fondly remember despite the tremendous evil we faced. Our strike teams, one from the Republic and one from the Empire, met at the gates of the Dread Masters' fortress, and agreed to a temporary alliance. Despite all the battles and rivalries we held with the Empire, it was the first day where I saw potential for peace."

The woman kept her eyebrow raised.

"You allied with the Empire?"

The Jedi Master nodded.

"The Imperial forces were strengthened by our soldiers that were MIA on the planet to begin with, giving their usual uncompromising hatred of us a temperament that opened them to the idea of working with us. Combined with the looming threat of the Dread Masters and their plans to destroy the entire galaxy, the Sith leaders agreed to work with us in a desperate attempt to kill the Dread Masters."

Master Ferran's eyes narrowed slightly.

"A team of twenty entered the fortress itself, waging war against the final remnants of the Dread Masters' forces. We suffered a few causalities along the way, four in total. But by the journey's end, we finally managed to stop the Dread Masters once and for all."

The woman remained silent, watching the Jedi as the two soon emerged from the narrow dirt path weaving between the tree line, arriving at a small bay leading into a dark blue lake of water.

"My duty was to secure the exit of the palace while the strongest of our forces faced the final remaining Sith head on. The horrors of that place still sting within my memory, but there was one solace to the nightmare within."

Master Ferran had kept his back to the woman as he approached the edge of the sand, turning back around to face her once he had come to a halt.

"You. Inside the palace, I had found you, imprisoned in chains in a lone cell."

The woman blinked, her expression still blank as Master Ferran's darkened slightly.

"You were sitting on the floor, crying in fear of the torture you undoubtedly endured at the hands of those beasts. You were the only one in that prison that I sensed life in. Yet that life was dwindling in the overwhelming darkness, and I originally thought you wouldn't make it."

The Jedi Master suddenly frowned, studying the woman.

"You...don't remember any of that?"

The woman shook her head to the side once, glancing down to the ground.

"No...I don't remember anything..."

Her eyes turned back up to the Jedi, her body still.

"I...I don't feel anything..."

Master Ferran kept his arms crossed behind his back, nodding his head.

"Your composure thus far has been...interesting, to say the least. Not once have I sensed even the smallest emotion in your words..."

The Jedi held out his right pointer finger towards her.

"Except for one: anger."

The woman remained unfazed.

"Anger?"

Master Ferran nodded.

"It's not very prevalent right now, but you are beginning to take your first steps back towards healing your state of mind through your anger. You do not feel anything, and because your mind knows there is more to life than the emptiness within you, it is beginning to frustrate you."

The woman blinked hard once more.

"How do you know this?"

The Jedi instinctively smiled.

"Because I remember you, and what happened to you on that fateful encounter. Your mind was crippled, broken by the torture of those Dread Masters. And when I rescued you, gave you hope, your mind found itself locked in a war between the light and the darkness. It continued, despite my best efforts, without a winner and once we had returned to the Republic encampment after the Dread Masters had been slain, you had done what any being forced to face such traumatic circumstances would do: shut your psyche off altogether."

The woman dipped her head back down, her eyes opening slightly. Master Ferran let out a small sigh, continuing.

"You awoke the next hour, dazed and confused like you are now, and I realized just how much you had changed. You no longer felt the maddening fear that had driven so many of the soldiers insane, yet at the cost of your own memory. I questioned you, spending a few hours trying to uncover who you were and why you were locked in that cell. Yet no matter what question I asked, you gave me no answer and I could sense how lost you had truly become after you had shut your mind down nearly for good."

The Jedi's smile returned shortly after, uncrossing his arms.

"It is a miracle you survived that day, and even more so that you are here now. My original plan was to take you before the Council and hopefully train you as my student, but your shuttle had been attacked on our way back to the Core Worlds. We had spent a few days searching that sector of space, trying to uncover where it was you crashed, but we found nothing."

The woman remained silent, following the Jedi with her eyes. Master Ferran began to make his way back towards the tree line, kneeling down at the edge and reaching out into the brush near the edge of the pathway, speaking as he dug around in the foliage.

"However, Damas soon arrived with the greatest gift I could imagine today, and now here you are. Now, we can begin to recover your mind together."

The woman frowned slightly, watching Master Ferran rise back up to his feet and grunt with a small bundle of wood cradled in his fore arms, moving past her and back onto the beach. He breathed out another sigh as he lazily dropped the bundle of sticks down onto the sand. His eyes then turned back from the wood to the woman, raising an eyebrow.

"So, are you ready to begin?"

The woman nodded her head once in reply, sparking a smile from Master Ferran.

"Good! Now, come over here..."

The Jedi Master gestured for the woman to approach, staring down at the wood as she followed his commands. He used his free hand to grasp onto the silver metal hilt dangling from his waist band, brandishing a light green blade in mere seconds once he had pointed the end towards the bundle of sticks. The woman jumped at the sudden buzz made from the ignition of the blade, watching the Jedi slowly cut lightly into a large chunk of wood before retracting the blade back into his hilt. A smoldering ash remained from the intense energy cutting into the wood, and the Jedi held out one hand towards the smoldering cut while tucking his hilt back onto his waistband with his other.

"First, in order to unlock the mind, we need to start with the simplest parts of your mental psyche: the emotions. Some members of our order would openly question uncovering your emotions as a true follower of the Jedi code would envy the detachment from life that you currently hold. But I believe the lesson I'm about to show you will teach you better than living a life wondering what emotions truly entail..."

The woman stared with wide eyes as a sudden orange flame erupted from the wound made in the wood by the Jedi's lightsaber moments ago, Master Ferran's eyes turning to her.

"For starters, what I want you to understand is that these emotions and life itself are essentially the same in concept as fire. The rage within you, for example, can give you immense power and strength just like a flame that burns as bright as your imagination will allow it. But if you let it, it will destroy you."

The Jedi pulled his open hand above the flame, the fire flickering across the wood at his command like a puppet. His eyes left the woman as he turned to study the fire, his eyes narrowing.

"Fire feeds off of a chemical reaction, where extensive heat from my lightsaber creates flames once it is fed enough oxygen to blossom. My manipulation here, as you can see, is merely feeding the flames with the oxygen required to keep it going."

Master Ferran then glanced back up to the woman, smiling.

"Your first test here is simple: I want you to build this fire as high as you can and keep it burning for as long as you can. Do not let the flames reach the forest behind us, and do not let the fire die."

The woman paused in response, before kneeling down next to the Jedi and extending her arms out to the flame. Master Ferran smiled, lowering his arm as he watched the woman narrow her eyes, the small fire burning brightly on the pile of wood.

"Good, very good. As you may begin to understand, fire is a force of nature that must be tempered and controlled. Just like the emotions within you, you must learn to balance the fire with control and potential. Use your rage to fuel the fire, but your restraint to keep it from consuming everything in its wake. Understand?"

The woman nodded her head in a silent confirmation, to which Master Ferran smiled happily. The Jedi Master turned on his heel, walking slowly towards the dirt path

"Good! Now, control the flame and build it up as large as you can without burning this forest down. I'm going back to the Temple to get some food to eat and take a small nap. I'll be back to check up on you in a few hours."

* * *

><p>The bright screen of the terminal illuminated the man's face in the black emptiness of the office space he worked at, alone in a cubicle in the middle of a floor now completely devoid of life and light aside from his lone terminal. He gripped the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger and thumb on his left hand, resting the weight of his head on his elbow in a sigh of frustration.<p>

The documents he had filed returned no evidence of his search, and the man grew frustrated despite the search query having been performed ten times prior with the same results. He cringed lightly, his frustration amplified by the lack of response he would receive on requesting a field agent to research the Section X grounds in his photographs of the Commander.

He guided his finger towards the bottom of the screen, lightly tapping on the screen with a picture filling up the left half of a comatose body of another Commander. The figure was dressed in dark black attire, resting on a cot with the angle of the photograph depicting the fin structures rising up from the top and sides of his golden mask. The man then turned his attention back to the second image, the same he had shown to Agent Balkar hours ago, depecting a small black spec wielding a purple rod in battle against numerous Jedi. His eyes narrowed, the golden speck on the shoulders of the body being plain and containing no fin like appendages, along with the figure wearing more battle attire in comparison to the body of the confirmed Dread Legion Commander.

The bald man sighed heavily once more, rising up out of his seat and walking towards the edge of the hallway, leaving the open cubicle behind.

* * *

><p>The morning sun had risen in the sky on Tython, the light atmosphere in its early stages now that dawn had set in on the temple's location on planet. Master Ferran watched the ground, traversing through the same dirt path he had led the woman down many hours ago, soon returning out into the bay where he had left the pupil.<p>

He lifted his chin, eyes wide in awe at the massive burning inferno before him. The ashes of the wooden pile he had built the fire now lay dormant in smoldering ruin, the fire having shaped into a massive oval hovering above the ground just a few feet away from the forest tree line. The inferno stretched out further over the lake itself, burning brightly in contrast to the rising sun as the woman stood with her arms raised, her hands mere inches away.

Master Ferran smiled, remaining silent as the woman ecstatically glanced over her shoulder to him with arms visibly shaking from the amount of energy she used in maintaining the blaze throughout the night.

"Master! You were right!"

The woman grinned nearly from ear to ear, letting out a small grunt as a pulse shook the ground beneath her feet, the flames continuously whirling in the oval shape above the ground expanding slightly in size.

"I can feel it again; the excitement, the rush of success. The thrill of the challenge!"

Master Ferran nodded his head, his eyes turning to the blaze as he moved to the edge of the lake's shoreline.

"You've done well, Padawan. Very impressive indeed..."

The Jedi Master smiled, nodding to her once more.

"I can feel your excitement in the accomplishment as we speak. Your determination, your competitive desire, and the surge of confidence in victory have opened some doors you had locked up tightly so long ago."

The woman nodded her head in agreement, keeping her grin.

"Yeah! I feel as if I can remember my past...where I've felt this kind of emotion before. It's all still fuzzy to me, but at least I can actually see a picture now!"

Master Ferran chuckled.

"Good, very good. You've done well in this first step, but there's something I need to show you before we take the next one."

The Jedi raised an eyebrow.

"Are you proud of this accomplishment, Padawan?"

The woman paused, her grin dropping slightly yet remaining prevalent on her face. Her eyes darted up to the fireball for a moment, quickly returning to Master Ferran as she stammered.

"Uh...ye..yes?"

Master Ferran kept his smile, nodding his head once.

"Good!"

His right arm swiftly shot up, dashing into the air as a thundering eruption in the lake itself shook the ground. The woman stumbled for a moment, her eyes wide and she let out a small gasp as a massive wave of dark blue water cascaded down from the sky directly above her head. She threw up her arms to cover herself, collapsing down onto the sand in covering herself while the cold water doused her in a torrent of liquid. She trembled on the ground, shaking against the sand from the nearly icy touch of the water.

The woman quickly sprang up, whirling up a sitting position. She kicked up a small bit of sand, her eyes wide and furiously throwing her fists into the ground in her drenched appearance.

"What was that for!?"

Master Ferran stood still, shrugging his shoulders lightly.

"I just felt like putting out the fire, Padawan."

He then smiled back down at her, watching her fume in amusement.

"Are you mad?"

The woman nodded her head rapidly in response, shouting.

"Yes! I spent all night building that fire up into a massive inferno, I did so well in keeping it alive!"

The Jedi Master nodded his head in agreement.

"And you spent all of your energy to keep it burning, yes?"

Master Ferran's smile twisted slightly into a smirk.

"That's why you're so tired right now, isn't?"

The woman sat still, staring up at the Jedi incredulously. She continued to huff, but turned her gaze down to the ground as Master Ferran continued.

"Your anger right now is stronger than ever, your pride wounded because I had torn down what you had spent an entire night to create in a matter of seconds. Yet despite your rage, you find it is tempered with your exhaustion and the knowledge that I am teaching you a lesson, not attempting to hurt or demean you. Correct?"

The woman stared back up at Master Ferran at the last sentence, her huffs slowing into silent steady breaths.

"I want to be mad at you, master. It...it feels right..."

Master Ferran kept his smile, nodding his head once.

"I know you do. It is the pride and anger within you, working together that makes you desire such a thing."

The Jedi let out a deep huff, kneeling down beside the woman without touching the sand with his knees. He then turned his attention to the smoldering ask pile of wood, gesturing to it with his right hand.

"Your emotions, and life itself, are like the fire you just spent so long controlling. You can spend your energy controlling them, building yourself upon them, and mastering yourself to where the fire you create is powerful yet controlled. Just like the inferno you created, where you followed my instruction of building the flame as far as you can without burning the tree line."

Master Ferran's smile widened a bit, nodding to the shoreline.

"Yet in the end, no matter how much energy you spend controlling the fire, no matter how far you come, it can easily be destroyed. Put out, tempered to where it no longer exists. The truth in life is that the Force is not an instrument to enhance one's self, but rather, that it is the water to our fire."

The woman's eyes followed his to the shoreline, watching on as he continued.

"Life itself, is a fire: we are temporary flames just waiting to be put out by the Force. A man who scrambles for their own self gratification is only that: a man. Like the flames, they can be destroyed. They can be tempered or put out forever."

Master Ferran titled his head back towards the woman.

"But...if you make yourself into more than just a man or a woman, if you devote yourself to an ideal. And if the they can't stop you...you become something else entirely..."

The woman sat attentively in response.

"And what is that?"

The Jedi's smile widened.

"Water, Padawan."

He gestured back to the shoreline.

"Unlike the fire, water flows freely and requires no effort or extensive input to survive. It can not be destroyed, only changed into a different form. It is truly incorruptible and invincible, and it is the Force that follows this concept more than life itself."

The woman frowned, turning her gaze back up to the Jedi.

"Then why bother with recovering my emotions, master? Why couldn't you just tell me this and not have me tap into my anger?"

Master Ferran rose slowly back up to his feet, looming over the sitting woman.

"You had learned to bury those emotions from the horrors you faced on Oricon. I have taught you how to confront them, and to face the truth. To master yourself and become a true Jedi, you must embrace the fact that you are a fire. To convert the flames into water, you must first understand that the flame must first be converted, and an ignorance of that flame would create a potential threat where your detachment could have easily been reversed."

The woman kept her frown.

"I had repressed those emotions enough to block out those Dread Masters, hadn't I? Surely it wasn't as easy as you make it seem."

The Jedi Master chuckled.

"All it took for me to bring out your anger was putting out a fire with water, Padawan."

The woman followed Master Ferran with her eyes, sitting in silence without a retort. The Jedi paused for a few seconds, his tone spiked in enthusiasm.

"Now! You've had a long night and I suspect you're in need of some rest, so let's walk back to the temple where you can rest up a bit. And when you're ready, we can perform a ritual I've come up with to hopefully bring out the memories within your mind still locked to us."

The woman offered only a nod in response, slowly pushing herself up off the ground while Master Ferran assisted in helping her up, gripping her hand and pulling her up to her feet. The two walked side by side once more, soon entering the treeline by the dirt part in their journey back towards the temple grounds.


	7. Chapter 7: Eternal Night

_**Chapter 7: Eternal Night**_

* * *

><p><em>The woman's eyes fluttered open at the crashing metal plates slamming together off in the distance, her body shaking to life. Her head remained low for a moment, finding herself on her knees in an upright position before quickly glancing to her side. Her movements were not of her own, trapped within a body that did not answer her commands yet her vision remained pristine.<em>

_Her head had tilted to the left, her gaze landing upon the vast construction taking place. Legions of soldiers and workers continued to collaborate on the task, lifting large pillars and foundations of the building onto the large watch tower off in the distance a few hundred meters. Her sight then turned back towards the ground in which she knelt, staring at the stone pathway beneath her. The bridge she found herself sitting on expanded out nearly half a mile in length, the ground below cloaked by the orange mist._

_The woman gasped lightly, realizing she was not alone as her eyes landed upon a golden crest looming over her. The wing-like fins ejecting from the sides of his eyes confirmed his identity to her, standing in the middle of the half circle of five figures all sharing the cold, unemotional stare from their golden crests. The woman trembled slightly, her back to the edge of the bridge as the middle figure spoke._

_"You failed."_

_The woman cringed heavily, nearly collapsing her head to the ground as visions of the cannon she had seen in her dreams crumble before her, her sight blinded by the mental projection. She panted heavily, gasping for air while the Dread Master spoke._

_"You were granted our strength, now feel its power work against you. Let the darkness cripple and shatter your mind."_

_The woman instinctively screamed in response, her hands quickly flying to her head as she began to claw at the sides of her temple. Her eyes widened, beginning to writhe on the ground while a second voice much darker continued on._

_"Your greatest humiliation lies further than your failure at the prison yard. Unlike your ally, who died in fighting to secure our goals, you ran from the field of battle. You fled, overtaken by fear within and a desire to live."_

_A more feminine voice filled the woman's ears next, yet her cold and menacing tone did not ease the overwhelming pressure plaguing the mind._

_"We have no use for a weakling who flees from battle in the face of defeat, nor of a worthless Commander who abandons our cause in pursuit of their own."_

_The woman continued to writhe in agony, having fully collapsed onto the stone pathway. Her sense of direction had been lost, completely devoid of where the voices had originated from or even where she now lay. The grey blurs of the stone bridge were her only sight, and suddenly, the blurry appearance sharpened in a matter of seconds. She panted lightly, her sight returning as she lay at the boots of the center figure, the pressure crushing her mind completely gone._

_"And yet, here you are. Despite your colossal failure, you returned to us, when all of your allies are dead."_

_The woman struggled to push herself off the ground, her eyes turning to the next male voice that spoke. Her eyes landed on his robes, his sash missing in comparison to the others._

_"The shield has been broken, your allies have served their purpose to us. You, are all that remains of that shield."_

_Her eyes instinctively shot back to the center figure, his tone still dark._

_"The Guard has been destroyed, as like you, they are weakened by their free will. Despite being granted our power, they have proven too incompetent to lead, as all other beings in this galaxy corrupted by the Republic and Empire."_

_Another femine voice spoke next, yet darker and deeper in tone than the first._

_"The Host will serve us well, enhanced by our combined might. Granted nearly the same strength as your Guard, yet unhibited by foolish free will and emotion."_

_The woman panted heavily, her eyes narrowing into slits back at the golden crest in the center of the figures. The looming figure spoke next, continuing to study her._

_"Our power can not enhance the Host as we had done before. A wound has been cut deep in our union, and now we have tasted death as you have."_

_The woman's narrowed eyes widened a bit in response, watching the figure open his right hand towards her. She felt her body tremble in response, a low hum escaping from the golden crest above her._

_"I can feel the madness within you, it grows ever stronger with each passing thought of your failure. And with the death of Lord Styrak, we too, feel its dark embrace."_

_The woman struggled to push herself up off the ground, the figure continuing._

_"The wound must be healed...our union requires a sixth. Or there will be only chaos."_

_The darker voice of the figure to the main's right spoke once more, continuing._

_"The forces of the Republic and Empire will march upon our moon within the month, and like you, we will make them into our tools. Our vessels of power, shielding us from the maddening terror that swells within all living beings."_

_The woman blinked hard, turning her gaze up as the lighter feminine voice spoke next, her eyes locking onto the wing like appendages also coming from the sides of her eyes._

_"You will join our union, not as an equal. But as a bandage to the wound that consumes us."_

_The beltless figure spoke next._

_"And when you have rotted and melted in the darkness, when your mind has shattered completely, you will be tossed aside. So that a new bandage, a new 'Dread Master', can be born."_

_The woman shook her head furiously, crawling towards the edge of the bridge yet facing towards the circle._

_"No! I refuse!"_

_The woman let out a scream, the ground shaking beneath her in a sudden shockwave of energy. Her eyes remained wide, grunting as she struggled against the invisible force restricting her ability to move._

_"You have already made your choice, and your purpose to us shall be fulfilled. Lord Brontes will see to your successful integration in our union. She...will be your end."_

_The woman continued to mentally writhe against the force holding her in place, her eyes turning to the smaller womanly figure furthest to her left. Her dark voice rang out one more, continuing._

_"Your future is here, your body is ours to mold. You will be humiliated and degraded, stripped of all but fear. And then, when you have endured the pain, when you have completed the cycle of existence..."_

_The woman twitched heavily, watching Brontes extend her right arm towards her._

_"Then, you will be ready to join us."_

* * *

><p>The woman shot up in her cot, her eyes rapidly flaring open in a wail of terror. She clung tightly onto the sheets covering her body, trembling lightly as she felt the fear begin to subside within her.<p>

_It's just a dream...it's just a dream. Only a dre-_

"Good morning!"

The woman yelped, jumping up at the sound of Master Ferran's cheerful voice, who leaned against the door frame of the open room. The woman cried out in pain as her head slammed into the wall to her side from shock, dropping her face back down into the sheets covering her lap.

She soon pulled her head back up, her short blonde hair ruffled in a mess as she angrily swore at the Jedi.

"What is wrong with you?!"

Master Ferran chuckled.

"Me? You're the one screaming in your sleep, not I."

The woman frowned instinctively, grunting.

"This isn't funny, master. I'm being serious!"

Master Ferran nodded his head once, keeping his smile as he pushed himself off the doorway.

"I know, my dear. But what better way is there to combat the fear than by joking about it?"

The woman offered silence in response, her head turning towards the Jedi Master as he approached her lone cot in the room. She stared back at him, her eyes slightly wide at the sight of his now distraught expression.

"Had a nightmare?"

The woman nodded her head, staring down at the sheets.

"I was...on a bridge. And I saw five figures, wearing golden crests and blood stained robes."

Master Ferran instinctively frowned.

"The Dread Masters."

The woman nodded her head.

"It was a memory...of when I was serving them."

The Jedi blinked.

"You were a soldier in their army?"

The woman shook her head.

"No...I was a Dread Guard. Their elite forces, a Commander. It was the highest honor in their forces before the Masters themselves...one that I shared with only four others."

Master Ferran narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Did you work closely with them?"

The woman nodded her head once.

"One of them...I remember well. I remember the Empire now, of a time when he and I were Sith. We were among the first to join the Dread Masters, and were rewarded by being given their power and command of the Host. Three more joined us shortly after...and the Masters told me they had been killed too."

Master Ferran kept his frown, watching her continue.

"I returned to Oricon after my failure at that...prison yard. I remember a large cannon collapsing on itself, the fear of their wrath, and running. Yet no matter where I went...no matter how far I travelled, I could feel them in my head. So I went back...to face their judgment..."

The woman cringed, dipping her head down.

"I...I can't remember his name though. I..I can't even recall my own..."

Her gaze then lifted, immediately turning back to Master Ferran.

"How can I know all of that and not know who I am?"

Master Ferran kept his solemn expression, pausing in silent for a moment as his eyes met hers. He glanced to his side for a second, before turning back to her.

"I don't know. Your mind was broken...whatever the Dread Masters did to you in that cell had made some lasting effects. I don't know why they did what they did, but whatever happened, it was clear they wanted to take away the individuality you had as a Commander."

The woman kept her head dipped, tears beginning to well at the edges of her eyes.

"They told me they wanted to strip me of everything besides fear. To take away everything I had known..."

Master Ferran nodded his head once again, reaching around the woman's shoulder and pulling her towards him. She collapsed onto his chest, breaking down into a fit of sobs as he quietly attempted to soothe her with whispers.

"It's alright...there's nothing to be afraid of anymore. They have no power over you now..."

The woman's head nodded once against the robes of the Jedi, continuing to cling tightly onto him as the two sat in the darkness for a few moments in silence. He turned his glanced back down to her, smiling.

"Hey, I know we talked about performing that ritual to help recover your memory some more. But after that traumatic experience you just underwent, I'd say we should hold off on delving deeper into your mind."

He let out a chuckle.

"After all, there's plenty of information you uncovered in that nightmare of yours to reflect on for weeks. Don't want you uncovering more memories than you can handle."

The woman tilted her head up, smiling.

"No...I'll be alright. Let's go through with your ritual, please."

Master Ferran locked his eyes with hers for a moment, before letting out a deep sigh.

"Alright, you win. We'll head up to a meditation room I like to use here in a moment when you're dressed and ready to go."

The woman nodded her head in acknowledgement, quickly pushing off of the Jedi as she collected herself. Master Ferran awkwardly moved back, frowning slightly at her quick detachment from the hold, and watched her head towards a cabinet pressed up against the wall to the left of the cot.

"...are you sure you want to go through with this?"

The woman turned her head back to Master Ferran, her expression blank.

"Yeah...I need to know."

Master Ferran dipped his head, nodding as well while rising to his feet off the cot.

"Very well, I'll wait outside while you get changed."

The Jedi's expression dropped a bit as he turned his back towards the woman, hanging his head slightly.

"Master?"

Master Ferran immediately perked up, glancing back over his shoulder to the woman. She offered a bright smile in response, her voice soft.

"Thank you, for everything that you've done."

The Jedi Master bowed his head towards her, unable to suppress a smile of his own.

"It's what I'm here for, Padawan."

Master Ferran turned back on his heel, moving out of the room and standing in the hallway alone. He kept his smile, leaning up against the wall as he waited for his Padwan to finish preparing herself in the dark room behind him.


	8. Chapter 8: The Awakening

_**Chapter 8: The Awakening**_

* * *

><p>Kneeling down onto the floor, the woman kept her hands lightly pressed against her thighs. Her eyes moved around the room she now meditated in, having stilled her breathing nearly completely at her master's request.<p>

The open chamber itself held no book shelves or furniture. Only a large, dark orange stone floor that matched the color scheme of the temple itself, a circular dome as the room's shape with a ceiling that hung ten feet above the two occupants' heads. A single light above illuminated the entire room, shining brightly down onto the kneeling Padawan as the Jedi Master paced to her left side in his speech.

"This ritual is something I merely began to test and experiment with after I had discovered you on Oricon a few weeks ago."

Master Ferran inhaled deeply through his nostrils, grasping onto his right hand that had balled into a fist with his left.

"On Oricon, a Jedi Master named Ogan-Dei lead the original strike team's forces into a trance to shield themselves from the madness of the Dread Masters. The chief principle of this task involved manipulating the force to block the Masters' attempts to invade our mental psyche itself, mostly by exploiting our fears within along with any other emotions the Dread Masters could possibly draw out from within."

The woman kept her eyes turned up to Master Ferran, watching him position his right foot forward while slowly opening his balled hands out towards her, his fingers fully extending from each hand.

"When I first arrived on Oricon, I felt the Masters' effects first hand and took specific note of their methods of attempting to invade our minds. Combined with the knowledge of how to defend my mental state and their specific patterns of manipulation, I believe I have uncovered a technique to invade your own mind and uncover the dormant memories that are currently locked from your damaged pysche."

The woman trembled lightly, a small breathe of air escaping her lips at the pressure that suddenly pulsed at the top of her head beneath her skull. She turned her gaze to the floor, the extra weight straining her neck.

"Close your eyes, Padawan. Relax your muscles and attempt to empty your mind of all conscious thought."

Master Ferran followed suit with his Padawan, shutting his eyes with hers as a golden glow began to emanate from around the woman's body. He exhaled deeply, stretching his fingers out lightly while the woman cringed.

"There is...darkness deeper within your subconscious. It is a void within your memory, blackening out the functions of some of your mind with its looming presence. Yet..."

His eyebrows narrowed in constriction, his fingers curling up lightly into a near grasping motion.

"It is more than just a void. I sense...something more than just darkness..."

The Jedi Master steadied himself, shifting his weight slightly on his two feet spaced in front and behind his body.

"I believe I have found what is ailing you. If I can purge this darkness, your memory should return."

Master Ferran grunted, his arms locking in place as he heaved towards the ceiling. The Jedi struggled against the unseen force, attempting to pull his trembling arms away from the woman with extreme determination. His eyes remained tightly shut, cringing heavily.

A crack beneath the woman's knees on the floor startled her eyes to open, her body shifting forward slightly. She immediately cringed, feeling the overwhelming pressure begin to build from the back of her skull as it gradually advanced to the center of her head. Her body began to tremble as well, the small knot in the center of her skull having stopped in place and expanding outwards towards the edges of her head.

Master Ferran suddenly collapsed onto the floor, having lost his imaginary grip to collide with the floor on his rear. He quickly shuffled onto his hands to remained propped up, yet sat in a trance at the sight of the woman's eractic screaming, watching her hands immediately fly to her temple. She immediately swung her head forward, causing Master Ferran to jump slightly at the sound of the stone floor cracking beneath her skull in her fit of agony.

The Jedi sat with wide eyes, the woman's body rising slowly into the air with her chin lifting to the ceiling. The golden glow receded, soon leaving her body to be replaced with dark purple flares covering her eyes sockets. Her arms rapidly extended out away from her chest, dangling in the air.

Master Ferran quickly lept back up to his feet at the shattering of the bright light at the top of ceiling above, shielding his face from the shards of glass colliding onto the floor. Black sparks of electricity radiated around the woman's body, striking out visciously at the shards of glass raining down onto her and reducing them to small ashes that left small traces of powder along her brown robes. The temple floor continued to shake violently in the sudden rush of power emanating from the woman, Master Ferran steadying himself against the force with an uneasy frown.

"What the..."

Master Ferran yelped, blasted backwards across the floor from a powerful shockwave that rapidly surged out from the woman floating directly in the center. The violent shaking of the room came to an immediate halt as the shockwave blasted through the chamber, the woman soon collapsing down onto all fours with heavy panting.

The Jedi Master groaned lightly, shaking his head as he collected himself. The stone beneath him had cracked from the force of his body slamming into it at a diagonal line, yet no significant damage had been inflicted on the chamber itself. His eyes turned back up to the woman, watching her with a perplexed stare as she slowly rose back to her feet as well.

The purple glow continued to emanate from both of her eyes, having directed her attention down to her outstretched hands. Her voice echoed in the empty room, a dark resonance tainting each word as she spoke.

"How..."

The woman turned her gaze up slightly off her hands.

"The Commander...of course..."

Master Ferran held still, watching on as the woman's glowing eyes soon landed on him. The Jedi Master's lost expression remained, silently listening on while the woman's lips soon twisted into a smirk.

"Well now, isn't this a lovely surprise? Master Ferran...so nice to see you again."

The Jedi tensed, his hand slowly shifting towards the hilt dangling from his belt.

"Padawan...what are you talking about..."

The woman paused, turning her attention down to her body once again. Her smirk had faded into a frown as she stared at the brown robes for a moment with narrowed eyes, before emitting a dark giggle and returning her attention back to Master Ferran.

"Your confusion is unwarranted, Master Jedi. Surely you could not have forgotten the terrible horrors you endured at our hands..."

Master Ferran remained silent, silently listening on as she continued.

"You marched onwards to that palace, to valiantly face the trials we had laid before you. You lived...you knew the pain...and you had learned the true power of fear..."

The Jedi Master's eyes immediately widened at her ominous speech.

"No...it can't be..."

His voice nearly diminished to a whisper.

"I watched you die..."

The woman bowed her head forward lightly, her smirk widening slightly at his recognition.

"Not even death can destroy the potential of perfection."

The darkness surrounding the Jedi Master retreated as his green lightsaber blade rapidly erupted up from his hilt, holding the blade out towards the woman standing calmly in the center of the chamber.

"No matter how many times you lay claim to it, you are far from perfect. We've killed you before on Oricon, and we can most certainly do it again!"

The woman kept her smirk, clasping onto her wrist and moving her arms behind her back.

"Then by all means, Jedi, strike me down. Look into the eyes of your Padawan and do what is necessary."

Master Ferran grunted, bolting forward in a quick dash and lifting his blade above his head. He gritted his teeth tightly together, leaping forward and flipping towards the woman as he brought his blade crashing down towards her body. His eyes widened, quickly bracing himself as his green blade stabbed into the cracked stone floor where the woman had stood moments before.

The Jedi lifted his blade up from the stone, whirling around with it extended out towards the darkness that surrounded him. His eyes darted from left to right, a dark voice resonating around the room.

"I can sense the fear within you, Ferran. Your thoughts wander...your focus on the ominous darkness that prevents you from seeing the ends of the chamber..."

The Jedi glanced over his shoulder, whirling around at the voice emanating behind him.

"Well done, Master Jedi. You have proven true to your order, detaching yourself from the people you care about in order to serve the greater good. Yet despite all of your teachings of detachment, you still cling to flawed ideologies of peace...order...and harmony."

Master Ferran narrowed his eyes, clenching the metal hilt in both hands tightly.

"I won't play your little mind games, Brontes. You won't succeed this time."

The woman's giggle erupted all around the Jedi from the shadows, her voice deepening.

"You have already lost, Ferran. You had already left yourself open to my influence from the surprise of seeing your beloved Padawan turn into your most feared enemy...and like a foot in the doorway, your mind will be mine to mold."

Master Ferran grunted once more, swiping at the air in front of his body and twirling around to slash behind his back. He paused, however, realizing the extensive panting and trembling his body began to endure. The Jedi quickly knelt down onto his knees, the green blade retreating into his hilt as he slowed his breathing and shut his eyes tightly.

"There is no emotion...there is peace."

The woman's voice became softer, her tone icy cold.

"Yes...good. Calm the flames burning within your body...utilize the teachings that you attempted to convert the Commander with..."

Master Ferran remained still, his voice still small and controlled.

"There is no passion, there is serenity."

"Like a fire that burns brightly, the emotions can be purged. Purge your mind of fear again...Master Jedi. Resist the terror that drives you to act..."

"There is no chaos, there is harmony."

The woman's voice rose in volume, her tone becoming more ominous.

"Temper the flames burning within you. Become the water that brings life and puts out the fire..."

"There is no death...there is-"

Master Ferran's body twisted into a spiral, blasting up off the ground as a torrent of bright purple lighting erupted a few centimeters below his spinning upper torso. His hilt quickly shot up to his hand from his belt, the green energy blasting forward while his feet connected with the shattered stone in a swift recollection of his stance.

The torrent of lightning crackled against the green blade, receding as Master Ferran bolted forward into a sprint towards the source of the dark energy erupting. His pace slowed intensely as he drew closer to the woman extended both palms out towards the Jedi, her voice booming in the chamber.

"The Force!"

Master Ferran howled, mustering all of his strength into his arms as he attempted to push his lightsaber forward. He cringed heavily, his arms collapsing slowly inwards towards his chest from the force of the lightning crackling against his saber. His heels dug into the stone itself, kicking up debris while his body began to slide backwards along the stone. The Jedi yelped loudly, feinting to his right as the torrent of lightning shot past to the wall with his lightsaber as his body blasted backwards, bouncing across the stone until his back crashed into the circular wall of the chamber.

The Jedi wheezed, hos body soon collapsing back onto the floor with an imprint in the stone from the force of the impact. He hung his head low, resting on all fours with his gaze locking onto the boots of the woman centimeters from his face.

"Yet despite your teachings of the weakness that is fire, you have failed to understand the gravity of how flawed the Jedi's principles truly are."

Master Ferran hacked, his hands flying to his throat in a desperate attempt to claw at the force that constricted his neck, rising off the ground and forced to face towards the smirking woman keeping him afloat in the air.

"It is the darkness from which all things originate...from which all life begins..."

Master Ferran cringed heavily, his voice weakly escaping his lips.

"There is no darkness that does not flee from the light..."

The woman's smirk widened slightly.

"As the water flees from the fire when it meets a flame that has grown too large."

The Jedi continued to cough and wheeze in the grip, his hands wildly flying out in search of his lightsaber as she continued.

"But like water, there is no light that can destroy it forever. Just as the light grows like the flame, its power lies in the effort of those who champion it; of those who build it. It requires constant care and attention, unlike the eternal nature of the darkness..."

Master Ferran's movements began to slow, his arms limping from his sporadic motions as his gaze turned back down to the purple glows that emanated brightly from the woman's eyes sockets.

"Just like the flame, the light can be put out. Extinguished forever, as easily as 'order' and 'harmony' fall to agents of chaos. While the darkness is everlasting, eternal, and incorruptible."

The Jedi Master's breathing had nearly slowed to a complete halt, his body having gone limp as he struggled to keep his eyes open. The skin along his throat began to break, small trails of red liquid streaked down the front of his neck.

"Despite all your strength, all your resources, and all your moral authority...the only victory you could achieve was a lie. Chaos is the natural way of all living beings...who they truly are. Born from the one emotion that you had struggled to fight against your entire life..."

Master Ferran's eyes shut slowly, his last breath of air escaping in sync with the woman's dark voice.

"Fear."


	9. Chapter 9: Origins

_**Chapter 9: Origins**_

* * *

><p><em>The woman stood tall, her chin slanted slightly upwards with her eyes fixated on the stars in the dark purple sky. Her arms were crossed behind her back, he face blank and now standing back in the same prison yard.<em>

_"Beautiful, isn't it?"_

_Her wording had been directed to the lone soldier standing at her side, overlooking the prison yard. The soldier had paused with his head tilted towards her. His facial expressions where hidden behind his mask and he offered only silence as a retort._

_The woman slowly shut her eyelids and breathed deeply through her nostrils. A small smirk etched its way onto her face from her lips._

_"Don't be afraid, Host. You may speak freely."_

_She stood motionless for a few moments, poised. Her head twisted to her side, nearly turning to face the soldier clad in black and unmarked Imperial armor._

_"Speak."_

_The soldier stood motionless, his helmet turned toward her with his silence as the only response. The woman's eyes narrowed into slits, slinging her arm up with a cupped hand towards the soldier._

_"I said speak!"_

_The woman grit her teeth together in the crushing grasp she afflicted onto the soldier, yet the armored man offered no reaction. Her eyes widened back open at the touch of his organs crushing beneath the Force she commanded, yet her sight of the soldier's unfaltering appearance forced her to rescinded her attack._

_"The path to invincibility and supremacy lies in a feat far greater than that of raw power or superiority in combat. To truly become more than just a woman, you must make your opponent believe it. Nothing more."_

_The soldier then flung his left arm up at the end of the smooth, feminine voice's lecture, blasting the other back in a torrent of wind. The woman collided hard with the ground and flipped backwards, skidding across for a moment before quickly righting herself onto her two feet in a kneel position ten meters away._

_She panted heavily, clutching her side as the soldier slowly advanced forward, the soft feminine voice returning._

_"Still your lungs...ascend past your mortal restrictions of breath, hunger, age, and fatigue."_

_The woman groaned heavily, her head dipping to the floor. She kept her side clutched, the pain amplifying nearly ten fold at the sound of the feminine voice, and she struggled to remain upright from the sudden sensitivity to her wounds._

_"How..."_

_"Conceal them. Focus your efforts."_

_The woman continued to pant, her gaze still to the floor._

_"Your lungs are inefficient, sucking in air through your mouth and nose by contracting muscles and exerting even more energy in a process that will eventually collapse in failure. Still your breathing, let the Force guide the air into your lungs and rejuvenate the blood circulating through your veins."_

_The woman continued to kneel, clenching her eyes shut. Her muscles in her neck and nose became stone at her command, nearly holding her breath in the beginning. She gasped lightly at the panicked state she now held herself in, her eyes wide open at the manipulation of the oxygen in the air, weaving into her mouth and down her throat to her lungs. She began to slowly rise to her feet, a calm soothing rushing over her body._

_"To make your opponent believe you are more than a mortal warrior, you must prove that you have ascended beyond those mortal traits. Use this lesson to guide you in your battles, remember the fear and terror you can inspire within an enemy that watches you battle and struggle without exhaustion. To see confusion in an enemy that expends their breath and energy on attacks, as you parry and fight while speaking without a single contraction of your lungs or muscles."_

* * *

><p>The woman's vision darkened at the lecture, staring down into the cold steel before her. She continued to pant lightly, now finding herself kneeling on all fours and staring at the metal ground.<p>

"What..."

She lifted her head, glancing around. The dark orange color pattern of the walls and panels in the small hallways filled her mind with thoughts of the shuttle she had arrived onto Tython in with the soldier, yet the emptiness of the ship unnerved the warm feeling she embraced of the soldiers she briefly spoke with herself during the descent from the space station. Her head darted to her left and right, trembling slightly at the sound of the same feminine voice from her apparition.

"Rise."

The voice was faint, weak in pitch and did not resonate like a voice from the throat of a normal sentient being. The woman followed the command however, soon standing upright on her feet.

"Where am I?"

Her eyes immediately landed at the sight of a light blue smoke flowing from the vents of the air conditioning unit above down towards her face, beginning to expand into a ball merely five feet away from her. The apparition developed slowly, a silky robe covering two cylindrical balls of smoke that developed towards the floor, hovering above the metal as they morphed into legs. From the middle, two more cylindrical plumes of the light blue smoke extended out, developing into gloved arms while a sphere developed at the top of the now round body.

The sphere morphed violently, fins of various shapes distorted into jagged shapes, soon transforming into a familiar crest that shone brilliantly under the light of the ship's dim atmosphere. The woman stood still, her eyes wide while the apparition developed into a Force ghost of the Dread Master Brontes.

"Safe...sound. Aboard a transport, now far away from the world you had begun to call home..."

The woman's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Why? Who are you?"

The Dread Master remained still.

"Your end."

The woman hesitated at the threat, her muscles tensing. She kept her eyes locked on the Force ghost, managing to place one foot back in a wider stance.

"You're that voice that spoke to me in the dream. You...you're not here to kill me."

Brontes extended her arms up slowly, open palms towards the woman.

"Your words betray your feelings...Commander."

The woman tightly shut her eyes, clenching her temple at the sudden pressure gripping her skull. She immediately dropped to her knees, groaning heavily as the Dread Master continued.

"You remember the promise we made to you on Oricon...you remember the role you were to play in our salvation. And you remember the power used to slaughter your own master...using your own hands."

The woman's eyes shot open.

"No...that wasn't me!"

The Dread Master hummed lightly.

"Yes...you can feel it in your senses. Remember...Commander...remember."

The woman's screech filled the empty shuttle's hallways as her head vaulted forward. The fuzzy image of the woman standing upright in the prison yard returned, her expression twisted in a fit of both rage and desperation, her fingers convulsing violently as she pressed the attack.

Yet the armored soldier now responded heavily at the force of the blow, his movements struggling to fight against the power on his throat. The armor began to morph, his gasps of breath escaping from his mouth giving the first signs of reaction. The black armor melted slowly before her, lightening into the familiar dark brown robes of her Jedi Master. The helmet twisted and melted into liquid, turning into a clear droplets that escaped from the edges of Master Ferran's mouth, clashing onto the floor in deafening explosions of vibrations in the woman's ears, forcing her to shut her eyes.

"No! Stop! Leave him alone!"

The limbs of the Jedi Master began to slow, Brontes' voice resonating in the mental projection.

"In the darkness you found your clouded mind in, you discovered a friend. And despite all his teachings of detachment and ascension into more than just a mere human, you developed a bond. A bond that strengthened you to battle the horrors of the night, a flame struggling to stay alive."

The woman's eyes slowly opened, the pressure in her skull suddenly cleansed from her. Her vision returned back to the ship, her narrowed eye slits locked on the light blue Force apparition floating above her.

"A bond, that was broken as easily as snapping a neck."

The woman roared at the top of her lungs, sloppily swinging her righ arm forward while her hand bawled into a fist. She stumbled forward onto the small staircase leading into the hallway, the cold mist of the Force apparition soaking her body as she collapsed through Brontes without inflicting any damage on the Dread Master.

"Yes...struggle. Experience the pain of loss...fight to deny the truth before you."

The woman quickly whirled around, lashing out at the apparition with her left leg. The appendage slung through the cold mist once again, her calf slamming into the metal doorway and leaving a small dent into the framework. She cried out, her arms tensing in her collapse back onto the hard rigged stair case, the sharp ends burying into her ribs with her trembling breathing nearly blocking out the sound of Brontes' voice.

"Move forward as a flame, fight against the nature of life itself. Defend your honor, defend your master, as if vengeance will give you solace."

The woman kept her eyes tightly shut, trembling heavily with her venomous voice booming in the ship.

"I'll kill you for what you've done!"

The Dread Master erupted into a sinister giggle, hovering directly over the woman's body and out into the hallway. The emotionless crest turned down to the struggling human attempting to rise back up to her feet, floating back towards the main cabin.

"No, you won't."

The woman's eyes shot open at the retort, the muscles in her arm tightening and rapidly shooting towards the ground. A shot of adrenaline rushed into her veins, the blatant denial of her revenge inspiring a surge of energy within her body as she rapidly shot up to her feet, her senses dulled. She let out another screech, clumsily dashing forward towards the apparition with one fist raised and her other hand clenching her lower thigh to pull her broken leg along.

The Force apparition then extended her right arm out at lightning speed towards the woman, the small pressure returning in the woman's skull. Her body nearly went limp, collapsing back onto her knees in the open room with her eyes nearly shut, her arms lazily falling down to her sides.

The woman huffed, the burning rage she felt within her mind now chilled to ice, trembling at the sudden absence of heat she had created.

"Wh..what have you done to me..."

The Force apparition kept her arm extended, her voice soft.

"Did you really believe the only emotion we could control was the fear?"

The woman's tone had weakened, her lips struggling to sharpen her enunciation.

"No...let..me...be mad. I...want to be...mad."

"I know you do. Just as you wanted to be mad at Master Ferran, just as you want to be mad at yourself."

The woman dipped her head, dulled in sense.

"You want to escape into your pride, to flee from the truth and die in defense of what is wrong. To escape reality."

The woman's eyes shut tightly, her voice cracking.

"Just kill me...please."

The Dread Master's arm lowered back down to her side, floating still.

"Your purpose is not yet fulfilled...Zuhara."

The woman kept her head hung, but she turned slightly towards the apparition.

"Zuhara..."

"You remember."

The Dread Master extended her arm back towards her left, a smoke cloud forming in the same color as the ghost herself. The woman turned her gaze back up, watching on as the cloud morphed into mutlitple figures. Yet her eyes focused solely on the smirking reflection of herself, wielding a single blade that cut through the men with expressions twisted in agony and pain.

"Dread Guard Commander Zuhara...the strongest of the Masters' forces. Anointed the power to crush entire armies, wielding deception to crush both Jedi and Sith alike."

The woman remained silent, caught slightly offguard at the sound of a shaken male's voice escaping from the ghostly crest.

"I've seen one kill ten Jedi without breaking a sweat..."

Her eyes turned back to the apparition, switching back as the smoke cloud before her morphed into a sinister vision of her reflection driving a purple lightsaber down to a laying human Jedi Master, pleading with his hands with his mouth agape.

"Rivaling the power of chosen Trandoshan, you marched the forces of the Masters into a pursuit to seize Section X and slew the Jedi in droves."

The visage twisted once more, the woman's reflection distorting into one of shock and fear on her face with the crumbling of the massive cannon in the distance.

"And then, you felt the power you wielded work against your own senses. You experienced the humiliation of failure, resulting in your defeat and betrayal to your Masters. You ran..."

The smoke clouded distorted one final time, depicting the woman curled into a ball, the paranoia stricken expression across her face unchanged by the currents raging around her mind in the shape of small robed figures.

"Our voices tortured you...broke your mind. You could not escape the madness...and you returned to our fortress."

The woman's head turned back to the Dread Master, silently listening on.

"And it is I who made you whole once more...who perfected Styrak's craft and made you my vessel. My...voice."

The woman frowned in response, her gaze to the floor.

"I am not whole. Everything is broken...I have nothing..."

Her eyelids shut tightly.

"I am...nothing."

The Dread Master's voice remained soft.

"It is your defeat...your humiliation that has given you a chance to be reborn. To see the galaxy in a new perspective."

The woman kept her head down, unresponsive as Brontes continued.

"The shattered pieces of your attachments were born from the hypocrisy of your teachings...of the Jedi. The fire within your body may be from your emotions and attachments...but the fire of the galaxy is the very ideal that the Jedi champion: the light."

Zuhara lifted her head slightly, the rage mounting within her mind.

"Hope is eternal. Fear can be tempered."

The Dread Master's tone remained emotionless.

"Look at yourself. You see your ideal challenged, and you fight against it in the very manner the Jedi taught you to ascend above. The fire is temporary, requiring effort and will to keep alive, struggling against the very nature of the universe in motion to exist."

Zuhara sat silently, her glare softening lightly while Brontes spoke.

"Just as societal laws protect the true nature of all beings: chaos. All beings are naturally chaotic, drive to war by their bloodthirsty nature and competitive attitudes, desiring to be free of the shackles that chain them. Through extensive codes of morality, of egotistical desires to be better than their barbaric natures did the ideals of "order", "peace", and "hope" ascend from the darkness."

Zuhara turned her head up fully, her gaze locking onto the crest.

"And what is wrong with ascending from the darkness? To become stronger than what we endure?"

A scoff escaped from the crest.

"Your strength is a flame, merely a temporary victory over the true nature of the galaxy. The true force of the universe itself."

Zuhara offered silence as a retort, listening with a blank expression.

"Fire can be extinguished, your strength wanes as a flame without fuel to support it. And when it dies, it can be put out forever. Just as the flame that dissipates forever in a candle being blown out, the light dies in the darkness."

Brontes' voice softened.

"In the end, the darkness is eternal. It can not be destroyed, merely displaced or changed into a different form. Just as water is invincible, the darkness is incorruptible and invincible."

Zuhara's blank expression remained, her voice also soft.

"And how do I become...eternal..."

The Dread Master remained silent for a few moments, her voice blunt once she spoke.

"Where it all began. Return home...and follow our path."

Zuhara dipped her head once more, her expression dropping at the command.

"You have been humbled and humiliated...stripped of all but fear. Embrace the darkness, the one force of nature that has been with you since the beginning, despite the broken attachments and false teachings of Ferran. The only force in the universe that remained true to you...and then, you will be ready to follow our path."

Zuhara nodded her head once, her voice still low.

"I understand...Master."

The Force apparition soon dissipated away into nothing, leaving the kneeling Zuhara alone aboard the dark spacecraft set on course for the infamous moon deep in the Outer Rim territories.


	10. Chapter 10: A Whole New World

_**Chapter 10: A Whole New World**_

* * *

><p>Nearly five months ago, the smoky atmosphere of Oricon had proven to be an entrapment to any being who set foot on the planet's surface. The bright illumination of the smoke ridden sky from the lava did little to negate the overwhelming and looming presence of the moon's newest Masters; twisting and corrupting any element of the moon into an ominous, foreboding warning to the arriving guests of the Republic and Empire.<p>

On this day, five months ago, that presence vanished from the moon as easily as an awakened soul trapped in an eternal nightmare; free of the terrible world their own minds concocted at the command of the Dread Masters. In time, the smoke covered sky of the moon also vanished with the nightmare. The encampments soon grew into full fledged operation bases, the Empire and Republic still waging war against the elusive remnants of the Dread Host, who fought against each faction in guerilla warfare. Lord Hargrev had grown accustomed to their battle plans; a missing ration crate here, a destroyed comlink and dismantled turret there.

He even recalled his conversation with the new commander that had been instated into running the Republic base nearly three weeks ago, detailing how three soldiers had been found in their barracks with their throats slit. But no matter what action or tactic the Dread Host committed against them, it was always minor in circumstance. Their forces were weaken, beaten nearly to extinction without the Dread Masters' mind control guiding their actions and platoons of their remaining forces surrendering to the two factions now that they had become free.

Despite their severe condition, however, the remaining Dread Host endured. Lord Hargrev turned his eyes up away from the small computer console he sat at towards the looming tower off a few miles in the distance. The bright, pulsing light that had originally engulfed the atmosphere on that fateful day was no where to be seen, the gap between the two stone columns dark and empty in its appearance.

The Sith Lord sat for a moment in silence, reflecting on the appearance of the structure he could see. How strange, he wondered, seeing the horrific architecture endure in such a manner; how little it touched his mind without that consistent mental barrage from the Masters who called the grounds "home". How strange, he thought, now that the stone columns appeared to be straight and square instead of jagged and bent.

"Mi'lord, we need you."

Lord Hargrev turned his head slightly at the sound of the woman's urgent voice. He sat silently, his eyes stuck on the scars on the side of the woman's face as she spoke.

"Have you come to a decision yet?"

The Sith Lord raised an eyebrow, slowly rising up to his feet.

"You know, I recall the destructive and wounding adventure we must have endured when our task force was forced to crash land on this moon all those months ago. But I must ask: did you truly get those scars from that crash? Or have you always had them?"

Mayia fidgeted lightly with her pant leg, recollecting her thoughts.

"With all due respect, mi'lord, perhaps this can wait for another time? Master Leda has been uncompromising on her desire to see those soldiers return back to their service and we need to give a response."

Lord Hargrev bowed his head lightly, placing his hands on his hips.

"I know, I've spoken with her before. I see no choice; let them return to the Republic base."

Maiya instinctively frowned back in response.

"Forgive me sir, but they are Republic soldiers after all. Master Leda may be a friend, but we are still fighting a war here. We shouldn't give them troops to aid them in keeping us away from that Palace."

Lord Hargrev narrowed his eyes.

"I know this, but I can not go back on our agreement. Darth Nox told those soldiers they would be free once we stopped the Dread Masters, and we have. We can not hold them prisoners against their will now just because they may pose a threat to us, and we can not fight against the Republic with the Dread Guard still breathing down our neck."

The Sith Lord slashed the air in front of him with his left hand.

"No, I will not discuss this any further. Let the men go, diplomacy is our only hope in securing the Palace and taking back the Phobis devices."

Maiya bowed her head lightly, her gaze to the ground.

"As you wish, mi'lord."

Lord Hargrev gave an acknowledging nod in response, watching the woman straighten up and keep her eyes trained on him.

"But if I may, the men are beginning to become unnerved. The mentally damaging atmosphere of the moon may be gone and the original task force returned home, but the new guards are beginning to become reckless. They have not been able to engage against the Republic with our cease fire order, and the Dread Host are merely shadows in the dark, merely helping the Republic keep us away from the Palace grounds."

Lord Hargrev frowned.

"Send them out into the field for a bit then, have them try to uncover more of the Dread Host's hiding ground holes again. I suppose I need to have another walk with Master Leda, and we can hopefully come to an agreement."

Maiya remained stone faced.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

Lord Hargrev narrowed his eyes, caught off guard.

"What is it?"

"Do you really want to secure the Phobis devices as Darth Nox instructed?"

Lord Hargrev paused, staring at Maiya blankly. The Sith Lord opened his mouth to speak, only for the woman to cut him off in the middle of his breath.

"Or did Master Leda convince you that the best course of action was to destroy them so that no one else could follow in the Dread Masters footsteps?"

Lord Hargrev stood in silence, his eyes glancing away as he attempted to think of a new strain of words. His eyes turned back to Maiya, however, landing on her half smiling face while she turned her body to the side.

"Because they are the only reason why we are here still, after all this time. And if I am still allowed to speak freely sir, I wouldn't mind it at all if they somehow managed to get destroyed in the crossfire from a botched Imperial operation to secure them."

Lord Hargrev watched her head towards the prison cells with her orders, suppressing a small smile from arising on his face after hearing her words. He couldn't help but sigh in relief at the cryptic approval of his true motivation, the exhaustion of repressing the Dread Master's mental assault on his entire strike force still strong in memory despite his mind now clear.

The Sith Lord sat back down in his seat towards the terminal, prepared to contact the commander of the Republic forces a few miles away at the Republic base via holoterminal. His mind returned back to that fateful day, his own raised voice resonating loudly in his head.

_"Stop them! Show the Empire that their depravity leads to weakness, not strength! Make sure no Sith is ever tempted to follow their path..."_

A strange feeling warmed his stomach as he thought the speech, unfamiliar to his memory. After all these months, he had finally gained the means to achieve the goal of his words and truly bring about an end to the Dread Masters' influence. Yet, despite all of his adversaries and foes, the strange feeling he felt was not one of his usual armory of anger, hate, or pride.

He thought once more of the Jedi Master's words to him, urging him to join forces with the Republic in a final push to exterminate the last of the Dread Host and destroy the devices. With his mind now absolved of following his commands thanks to the approval he had longed for in Maiya, he now understood the feeling that swelled within him.

The Sith Lord felt his strength increase with the strange feeling in a way he had not experienced in his life, yet now, understood what the feeling truly was.

"So," he thought.

This is what hope feels like.


End file.
